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Bundibugyo Ebola Outbreak Nears 300 Cases as WHO Opens Bunia Treatment Centre

Rapid international effort to start trials and accelerate vaccines aims to curb spread for a strain that has no approved vaccine or specific therapy.

Healthcare workers who have recovered from Ebola pose for a photo in Bunia, Congo, Sunday, May 31, 2026. (AP Photo/Moses Sawasawa)
Health workers get dressed in personal protective equipment (PPE) at the Evangelical Medical Center, one of the facilities at the forefront of the response to the Ebola outbreak, as agencies intensify efforts to contain a new Ebola outbreak caused by the Bundibugyo virus strain, in Bunia, Ituri province, Democratic Republic of Congo, May 31, 2026. REUTERS/Gradel Muyisa Mumbere
Director General of the World Health Organisation (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, right, shakes hands with Ezo Etienne, a health worker who recovered from Ebola in Bunia, Congo, Sunday, May 31, 2026. (AP Photo/Moses Sawasawa)
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Overview

  • Health authorities report roughly 280–290 confirmed cases across the Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda, about 42–43 confirmed deaths, and more than 1,100 suspected cases still under investigation.
  • On Sunday WHO Director‑General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus visited Bunia, opened a new 42‑bed Ebola treatment centre and announced that five health workers had recovered and been discharged.
  • There is no licensed vaccine or strain‑specific treatment for Bundibugyo Ebola so WHO and partners are fast‑tracking clinical trials of experimental monoclonal antibodies and antivirals while CEPI is funding accelerated vaccine development.
  • Response operations are being hampered by limited testing and long sample backlogs, contact tracing that covers fewer than half of contacts, active armed conflict, population movement and community resistance to safe burials.
  • The outbreak has hit health workers especially hard and is straining local services, prompting calls for more rapid international support to expand testing, send medical teams and keep borders open to aid delivery.